Mongge thought about it for a long time, but still couldn't figure it out.
Why had the Marines attacked him? Why had they surrendered right after attacking him, and then left behind an entire cargo ship carrying "Celestial Gold"?
Was this...
An attempt to pin the theft of the Celestial Gold on him and make the Celestial Dragons hate him?
Mongge had to admit, it was a vicious scheme.
The Marines responsible for escorting the Celestial Gold would certainly be punished for its loss.
But given their clearly insufficient strength, if the World Government wanted to punish these Marines severely, the higher-ups in the Navy would do their best to plead for leniency.
In the end, the blame would still be dumped on Mongge.
The World Government might not have cared about Mongge before. Even if he had gained Admiral-level strength, they might not have paid him any mind.
But stealing Celestial Gold was different.
To recover the Celestial Gold, the World Government would certainly order the Marines to hunt him down with all their might. If he ever gave away his whereabouts, he might well find himself surrounded by several Admiral-level fighters.
But was Mongge afraid?
The cargo piled up in the hold before him was worth at least two billion Beli, by his rough estimate.
That was two billion Beli without inflation!
Even Mongge's own head wasn't worth that much.
"We already stole it, so what the hell is there to be afraid of!"
With this much money, even if the Navy wanted him to take the fall for them this once,
he'd accept!
As for how his whereabouts had been exposed, Mongge could only assume they hadn't concealed their movements the last time they went ashore, allowing the Marines to find them.
It wasn't anything strange.
He had left Elbaf to keep the Marines from mistaking the White Wolf Pirates for allies of the giants of Elbaf and blockading the island's sea routes ahead of time.
But as long as the White Wolf Pirates appeared in the Navy's intelligence network, the Marines wouldn't attack Elbaf recklessly.
They'd just have to be more careful next time.
"Lipri, can you shrink all this cargo and bring it aboard our ship?"
"No problem!"
Lipri's voice was more excited than ever.
She'd never seen so many strange and wonderful luxuries in her life, not to mention all the glittering gold, silver, and jewels. They almost blinded her.
Fortunately, Lipri had eaten the Mini Fruit. She could control her own size, and she could also shrink any object she touched.
Even people.
However, how small she could make someone depended on her mastery of her Devil Fruit ability. There were also some special cases where she couldn't shrink someone at all.
For example, Charlotte Linlin.
Once Lipri had mastered her Devil Fruit ability, she'd been able to shrink Giant King Harald—who was twice as tall as an ordinary giant—down to the size of a normal human, as long as he didn't resist.
But when she tried it on Charlotte Linlin, Lipri's power had been thwarted.
So Mongge suspected...
Charlotte Linlin's physique might have something to do with Haki.
Ordinary people's Haki remained hidden. Since they had so little of it, they had to train their bodies to the limit before they could draw it out.
But Charlotte Linlin's Haki had been active since birth.
Maintaining that state must have required tremendous stamina, which was why Charlotte Linlin had developed Gluttony Disease.
It was an instinctive response by her body to save itself.
In the future, Charlotte Linlin had once lost the benefits of her physique after losing control of her emotions. This also confirmed that Charlotte Linlin's talent wasn't simply a matter of her physical constitution.
Of course, Mongge could only verify the details one by one after returning to Elbaf and beginning to train Charlotte Linlin.
No pirate crew could swallow an entire cargo ship full of goods in one go. The best option was to take the whole ship with them.
But thanks to Lipri's efforts, it took Mongge and his crew less than half a day to move all the "Celestial Gold" into their own hold.
That solved not only their money problem, but their food problem as well.
"Even the milk is Celestial Gold?"
Rocks took a big gulp of milk from the cargo ship, but he couldn't tell how it was any different from the milk he usually drank on Elbaf.
"Haha, Celestial Gold doesn't just mean gold and silver. Rare plants, animals, and even rare races can all count as Celestial Gold."
"Rare races?"
"That's right. There's a commodity in this world called 'slaves,' and rare races can fetch a high price as 'slaves.'"
Mongge made no effort to hide his disgust.
One of his former crewmates had been captured by slave traders, so Mongge knew all too well what it was like to be a slave.
"Then doesn't that mean we stole the right money?"
"You could put it that way."
Mongge might have felt bad about robbing a legitimate merchant fleet, but he had no qualms at all about stealing the Celestial Dragons' Celestial Gold!
"Still, this Celestial Gold is stolen property, so we can't just fence it anywhere. I'll see if there are any islands nearby where pirates gather."
Mongge dragged a large box out of the captain's cabin. It was packed with Log Poses of every kind, leaving Lipri staring in astonishment.
"Are these all Eternal Poses?"
"That's right. This is the most precious treasure I've accumulated over the past few decades!"
Mongge wore a smug smile.
Before he became a pirate and got his own crew, Mongge had spent most of his time traveling alone. He'd been a wanderer of the sea.
And what kind of wanderer couldn't find his way across the sea?
So, aboard the White Wolf Pirates' ship, Mongge wasn't just the captain; he was also the navigator. That was what gave him the confidence to sail even with only a few people.
"Found it."
A certain island, absent from the usual Log Pose records, surfaced in his mind. Mongge found its Eternal Pose and smiled.
"Our next destination is—"
"Sphinx!"
One day later.
Vice Admiral Robby, who had rushed over from Marine Branch 9 in the Grand Line, found a cargo ship that had been completely emptied out—not even a mouse was left aboard.
"So they really did come prepared?"
When he'd heard that Vice Admiral Ackerman, who was escorting the cargo ship, had called for help, Robby had doubted the story. After all, pirates stealing Celestial Gold was the sort of thing that might not happen even once in a hundred years.
Didn't those pirates know that stealing Celestial Gold would bring down the fury of the World Government and the Marines?
But when he saw the completely empty hold, Robby had no more doubts.
"Now that they have the strength to fight a Marine Admiral, the White Wolf Pirates are raising funds so they can expand their forces further?"
At the thought, Robby's expression turned grave.
This was no longer something a mere Vice Admiral like him could handle. He'd only come to assist in the first place to see whether the White Wolf Pirates had left behind any clues.
Fight the White Wolf Pirates?
Don't be ridiculous!
"Contact Headquarters immediately. Tell them the White Wolf Pirates may be preparing a terrifying conspiracy and that an Admiral's support is essential!"
"Yes, sir!"
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